Introductory Note to the Civil Law Dictionary

At the risk of offending the National Committee on Accreditation of the Canadian Federation of Law Societies, which commands fees the more course they can impose on civil law lawyers seeking to become common law lawyers, and vice versa, there is a clear pattern of rapprochement between the ancient common law and civil law systems.

Wherever you look, now, you can see counter-parts of the concept of one system in the law books of the other.

With modern travel and communication, this was inevitable. After all, the law is based on human conduct and, frankly, in 2009, other than the quality of their respective hockey teams and a language switch, there's not much difference between potential torts and contract terms in Vancouver and Montréal.

And so, to be true to my readers, I have not re-invented the wheel for the sake of expounding distinctions when in fact, if not in law, none exists. For example, while academics in their cluttered university offices would decry this statement, there is little practical difference between the common law of tort and the civil law of delicts (or civil liability).

Even those two last bastions of old English law, contract law and equity, timidly hide though their progeny persists as bold doctrines, the latter behind an esoteric concept of consideration that no right-minded modern judge would ever defer to in a real contract case except where it might be otherwise voidable as unconscionable.

Thus, I have extracted those terms which in fact are essentially the same in the common or in civil law and this Civil Law Dictionary only includes those terms which originates in the civil law, have no real common law counterpart; or which present as a distinct word in the civil law (eg. prescription instead of limitations and civil liability instead of tort).

Throughout the main Legal Dictionary, the civil law concept is distinguished if necessary, or the civil law French equivalent of a term is given at the bottom of the definition, right before references, if any.

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Duhaime Lawisms

Everybody is supposed to know the law except Her Majesty's judges who have a Court of Appeal set over them to put them right.
Glanville Williams, Criminal Law, General Part (1953), p. 386.

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Unless otherwise noted, this article was written by Lloyd Duhaime, Barrister, Solicitor, Attorney and Lawyer (and Notary Public!). It is not intended to be legal advice and you would be foolhardy to rely on it in respect to any specific situation you or an acquaintance may be facing. In addition, the law changes rapidly and sometimes with little notice so from time to time, an article may not be up to date. Therefore, this is merely legal information designed to educate the reader. If you have a real situation, this information will serve as a good springboard to get legal advice from a lawyer.